Human Resource Blog

Work Hours Compliance in Maryland

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The employer has stated that they are considering having the employees work 7-day schedules with 12-hour days. This would mean working 7 days and then off for 7 days. It seems that if you work more than 8 hours a day, the remaining 4 hours should be paid as overtime. Employees are paid hourly. Is this legal, and does it comply with the laws for overtime in Maryland?

Sorry, but your assumption that employees in Maryland are entitled to overtime after working 8 hours per day is incorrect. There are a very few states (including Alaska and California) that require overtime after 8 hours. Nevada requires overtime after 8 hours, but only for minimum wage employees.

Both Maryland and federal law require that employees are paid overtime after working 40 hours in  a payroll week. If the employee works 80 hours in a single payroll week, he or she is entitled to 40 hours regular time and 40 hours overtime at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate. It\’s not clear why an employer would do this, since it would be cheaper to hire more workers and pay the workers 40 hours of regular time, every week.

Also note that Maryland (but not federal) law exempts workers in many occupations from overtime.